On Media

NBC News to launch NBCNews.com

By DYLAN BYERS

06/21/2012 02:31 PM EDT

NBC News, which has long had to share its website with MSNBC at msnbc.msn.com, is finally set to get its own website.

NBC Universal has hired a new press representative and brand manager who tells POLITICO that her assignment will be to "ramp up political coverage through the November election for MSNBC.com and also introduce/promote/roll out/etc. what will be NBCNews.com."

The new site, which sources say is tentatively scheduled for September, would enable NBC News to distance its digital presence from that of its sister cable network, where programming has becoming increasingly liberal.

Last month, Adweek reported that NBCUniversal has been in negotiations with Microsoft to buy back MSNBC.com and could close the deal as early as this summer. MSNBC.com, which like MSNBC was launched as a joint venture between NBC and Microsoft in 1996, remained a joint venture even after NBC took full ownership of the television network in 2007.

The conversations between NBCUni and Microsoft are ongoing, but the two have have yet to reach a deal.